Rants on Bangalore's traffic situation

This is a discussion on Rants on Bangalore's traffic situation within Street Experiences, part of the Buckle Up category; Originally Posted by SR71-Blackbird
And the common people are asked to do the work of cops!
I dont mind at ...

One question about the app. Won't there be accidents while taking a pic of an errant fellow driver ? That is a problem in itself since you are using a mobile to click a pic and mostly while driving albeit slowly. Or maybe you have to pull over to one side and then get out of the car and click. With the current traffic situation the perpetrator might not make a clean getaway.
On a more serious note I can even click innocent folk saying he did something and drove away and I clicked the pic while he was running away from me. That chap could be innocent in reality and I am just playing the fool. Would they not need more evidence ?

Purely from my perspective, I intend to use when I am walking , jogging etc . In my area of Jayanagar T block we have this issue of flagrant disregard to traffic rules, basic road etiquette by educated and well heeled persons. This being a social initiative there will be definitely cases of willful wrong reporting, but , assuming that as responsible citizens , its imperative to use this app for the right purpose and not use to settle some personal scores.

...On a more serious note I can even click innocent folk saying he did something and drove away and I clicked the pic while he was running away from me. That chap could be innocent in reality and I am just playing the fool. Would they not need more evidence ?

It's not as easy as it sounds - more like those 'get a personal loan of upto 15 lakhs in 30 seconds' marketing done by banks. Based on experience, these are the violations that have a good probability of making it, provided the pic is clear:
- Riding without a helmet
- Non-standard number plates

The more commonly seen violations, but hard to make the cops believe:
- Crossing the stop line
- Using mobile phone while driving/riding (personal experience - reported multiple screenshots from dash-cam video, but rejected)
- Jumping signals
- Driving without wearing seat belts
- Lane indiscipline (personal experience & from this thread - those who come the wrong way too are let off)

I don't have any stats, but my experience with raising 'violations' through the app & Public Eye portal has not been very forthcoming. The actual number that eventually gets penalised and fined would be even lower

Purely from my perspective, I intend to use when I am walking , jogging etc . In my area of Jayanagar T block we have this issue of flagrant disregard to traffic rules, basic road etiquette by educated and well heeled persons. This being a social initiative there will be definitely cases of willful wrong reporting, but , assuming that as responsible citizens , its imperative to use this app for the right purpose and not use to settle some personal scores.

Turn off the flash in your phone and be discrete. You want to make sure that you are not noticed while photographing people with their violations. Else, it is very likely that your phone will be taken away and no one will come to your rescue. This happened to me.

What had happened today on ORR (between Marathahalli and Iblur flyover)? I was checking google traffic from 6pm onwards and everything was Red/Dark Red. By the time I was done, it was 7:15 pm and still no respite. From ITPL, I did not even see any green on any roads for joining ORR! Finally decided to take the "scenic" route via Varthur/Sarjapur - 12 extra kms than usual but reached from ITPL to Agara in 1 hr 20 minutes. Saw a BMTC breakdown just after Iblur flyover as well and 2 police jeeps and few traffic police/constables trying to manage the traffic. Fortunately I was on service road coming from Sarjapur road so escaped! But am curious to know what caused the mess. Any of you got stuck today? It had been a relatively easy journey on ORR coming back in last 2-3 weeks but today it looked like back to square one!

Started work at ITPL yesterday and on the way back I took this route. Was stuck between 5-530 near HAL airport just because a stupid VIP had to pass. My dad was waiting near ISRO and he told me that the whole place was clear. Not sure why they require such a long stoppage for a damn person to pass through for a couple of seconds. Of course chaos followed later as most of the people were impatient and drove recklessly.

Today on the way back I came through KR Puram and believe me, it was a breeze. Left work at 430(near Sathya Sai hospital) and reached home in BSK by 545! Traffic was mostly free flowing except for a few bottlenecks. Even the area near Phoenix Marketcity was free flowing. Will not take old airport road again if travelling by car in the future. Lesson learnt.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ambivalent_98

One question about the app. Won't there be accidents while taking a pic of an errant fellow driver ? That is a problem in itself since you are using a mobile to click a pic and mostly while driving albeit slowly. Or maybe you have to pull over to one side and then get out of the car and click. With the current traffic situation the perpetrator might not make a clean getaway.
On a more serious note I can even click innocent folk saying he did something and drove away and I clicked the pic while he was running away from me. That chap could be innocent in reality and I am just playing the fool. Would they not need more evidence ?

I record most of my driving either through spare phone or primary phone mounted on the windshield. This will make the job easy. I just come home, scan the video for offenders and then upload those screenshots with multiple images for a concrete proof. I guess that should be both safe and effortless, I find at least one prospective offender every minute of video captured. Sometimes they are caught in bulk during signal jumping, footpath riding and driving on the opposite side. They just need to get to the frame of the camera and the job is done Here is a sample. I have blurred the faces for posting here, but it goes raw to public eye:

Coming to the second part you said, in some cases the public eye claim is rejected by police if the evidence isnt clear or sufficient. I keep seeing the progress of complaints lodged and some people do this, ie just upload a random picture of the vehicle and claim some offence has been committed. These are rejected due to lack of proper evidence.

Last edited by aah78 : 4th September 2015 at 23:27.
Reason: Smiley removed.

Had a strange experience today.
On my way back home, on the Highway opposite Biocon, I was on the leftmost lane as I had to join the service road.
An Audi was in front of me. As soon as I got way, I started overtaking from the left.
Then I saw something on the road and slowed down. on going closer, it was a guy on the road! I was shocked for a second!
But sometimes I see physically handicapped guys crossing the road and I thought this must be such a case and stopped.

But this guy started acting crazy. The next one minute I don't know how to describe it, but was totally irritated, confused, terrfied, frightened.
Watch the Video recorded on my dashcam. At the end of this video, the dashcam has made another file because of the setting.

fortunately for me I could drive past him at the end of this video.
After I drove on, I saw in the RVMs that the guy sprung up and stood on his legs and walked away. He wasn't stable mentally for sure.

At the appearance of that chap, I casually assumed him to be one of the handicapped person looking for alms (There is one who is regular between Sira and Tumkur with one leg and walks on all 3 lanes collecting alms from truckers), but then I see him smiling!! Then he even plays around trying to block your path whenever you want to go. Quite dangerous here as traffic is pretty fast in this section as I witness every day.

Whatever he was aiming but this certainly is amusing to say the least. I also see few other onlookers who were equally curious!!

This is first time I am seeing such antics on road. The video does look scary! Imagine if it was at night and you were alone in the car. A dash cam can really be helpful. There could be chances of this guy catching up to you ahead and asking for compensation, claiming you had hit him!
Good to see you dint haste out of the situation and handled it calmly. :thumbup:

That indeed was an experience!
Quite dangerous here as traffic is pretty fast in this section as I witness every day.

Dangerous it is. In fact there was a big truck behind me but luckily for me he was calm too. he stopped at a distance which allowed me to reverse couple of times. The truck driver was sitting very high and he was seeing it from behind me and stopped well behind me.

Quote:

Whatever he was aiming but this certainly is amusing to say the least.

Maybe seeing the Abarth Badge, he went crazy with happiness

Quote:

Originally Posted by kp1992

There could be chances of this guy catching up to you ahead and asking for compensation, claiming you had hit him!

In fact, the driver of an Indicab that came beside me (you can see it at the end of the video) knocked on the passenger side window asking me to roll down and then asked me If I hit him!